Written by Jinwook Lee
As the 2022 Winter Olympics kicked off in Beijing on February 4th, a mere 6 months after the end of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, thousands of athletes from all over the globe anxiously awaited their chance to prove their prowess to the world. However, Covid-19 looms over the prospects of many athletes and their fans, just as they had during the long-delayed Tokyo Olympics. Athletes such as American figure skater Vincent Zhou have lost out on their chance for international glory due to the virus (Macur & Das, 2022). This year’s Winter Olympics in particular have not only been costly to the athletes, but to the host city of Beijing as well. This year’s Olympic Games will come with an especially hefty price tag, especially given the administrative and financial challenges that the ongoing pandemic presents for the host city.
Hosting the Olympics has long been an expensive task; the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was the only one to have resulted in a profit for the host city. Due to a myriad of associated costs, such as planning, consulting, construction, and updating infrastructure, host cities have been struggling to keep up with the necessities that hosting the games brings. The significant costs of upgrading and newly constructing specialized sports facilities (such as ski slopes) and the Olympic Village are often a particular burden to the host, especially if those facilities are sparsely used after the games. In fact, this struggle has been so apparent that many candidates for the bid have withdrawn from being considered, such as Boston, Budapest, and Rome. Still, cities choose to host for a multitude of reasons, such as broadcast revenue, opportunities for tourism and local businesses, and to flaunt their creativity and economic stability (McBride & Manno, 2021).
Much like Tokyo last year, Beijing faces the particular problem of hosting the games during the Covid-19 pandemic. The challenges of hosting the events while keeping both athletes (and associated staff, coaches, etc.) and local populations safe from the virus would be difficult for any host. Due to the recent surge in cases from the Omicron variant, the public has been barred from spectating the events, leading to an estimated loss of $118 million from ticketing. The city of Beijing has invested $1.51 billion for operational costs alone in hopes of bringing long-term improvements to the region’s infrastructure (Liu & Liu, 2022). In addition to these costs and losses in ticket revenue, Beijing has enacted tight Covid control measures dubbed the “bubble”. Athletes can skip the usual required quarantine, but are tested daily, must wear masks when not competing, and have limited contact with the local population (Wu & Moritsugu, 2022). These actions are necessary in order to align with the strict policy that China has enacted to keep case numbers low overall. Further measures have been taken to accommodate the Olympic guests but have stifled the local economy. For example, many factories around Beijing (most notably steel plants) have reduced operations in order to reduce air pollution and allow athletes to compete in better air quality.
Beijing’s economy may have lost hope for the usual boosts in tourism and spectating that the Olympics bring, but experts predict that these obstacles will not remain. Lu Ting, Chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc., predicts that “[t]he Winter Olympics will affect industrial production and infrastructure construction in the first quarter,”, but also “won’t boost consumption either because of virus outbreaks” Additionally, the increased public interest due to hosting the games could help China achieve its objective of making the sports industry worth 5 trillion yuan (786 USD) by 2025. Authorities have already stated that their target of getting 300 million Chinese citizens involved in winter sports has been surpassed (Liu & Liu, 2022).
Beijing’s hosting of the games may not have purely economic motivations; as seen from historic examples, this would be considered an unreasonable desire. The 2022 Winter Olympics may be an opportunity for China to display its status as a global technological and economic power, with its green energy-fueled stadiums and ability to keep Covid at bay. Most importantly, the games may be a source of national pride for the population, as the promises of job creation and infrastructure improvements, as well as the flames of competition, are offered to Chinese citizens.
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